Twilight’s horn started glowing as she touched it to the stony Discord. A simple spark of magic was all it would take to remove her part in the spell that had trapped him. Humans only had to be wronged once more, then she would be free and Equestria would be safe.
An image of Walter’s weak smile ran across her mind. The sound of Fluttershy telling him it would be okay consumed her thoughts.
She just needed to forget about humans. Walter had even said it would have been kinder just to kill them...
...but it was the sins of pony-kind that had made that true. Twilight lifted her head and sighed. She couldn’t do it.
Not wasting a moment, she disguised herself as Dr. Beta, opened the terminal, and ran the program to take her to the Old Earth. After reappearing, she was mildly comforted that Walter’s house hadn’t been filled with strangers inquiring about Dr. Beta’s mysterious disappearance. But this sensation didn’t last long, as Rarity was next to her.
“This is where you have been staying. It is simply dreadful.” said Rarity.
“Rarity?!” Twilight exclaimed.
“I simply could not allow you to run off again so I came with you.” said Rarity.
“You would really rather live here with me, than home with our friends?” asked Twilight.
“Darling, that is simply preposterous. I am here to convince you to come back.” said Rarity.
“How did you even get here?”
“It wasn’t easy. I spent a great deal of time while you were away practicing an invisibility spell in case you ever came back. When you showed up unexpectedly I hastily made some preparations so you wouldn’t suspect I was tailing you. It was far from perfect though; I believe you noticed my bed, and even bumped into me.”
“If you started following me from then on, how did you tail me through that awful snow storm?”
“I couldn’t follow you when you left Equestria’s borders, but thankfully you later returned to my boutique, where I resumed my quest.”
“As glad as I am to see you, your effort is wasted. Nothing you can say will convince me to come back.”
“I didn’t plan on saying anything. Fluttershy told me this is a dreadful place you can’t bare the thought of your friends being at. Well, I’m not budging until you return.”
Walter, who had silently entered the room, while they were conversing, interjected, “She a friend of yours?”
“I don’t know what he just said, but would you please tell him it is rude to interrupt,” said Rarity.
“We did just barge into his home unannounced,” said Twilight.
“I understand you didn’t have time to look around, but someone actually lives here on purpose?”
“It may not look like much...” began Twilight.
“Oh my stars!” proclaimed Rarity, whose eyes had just taken in Walter.
“Rarity! I know he isn’t exactly beautiful, but that’s just rude.”
“Its not his appearance that is revolting; it is how he adorns it. Even he can be made beautiful, but he has clearly given up.”
“That’s okay, I didn’t want to meet her anyway,” muttered Walter walking away.
“Sorry, I got distracted and forgot to introduce you,” said Twilight to Walter.
“I don’t know what she said when staring at me, but I’m not sure I want to meet her.”
“She’s just not used to looking at humans,” said Twilight smiling feebly.
“Nice save, but neither of your other friends reacted like that.”
“Sweety not to be rude, but last time you carried on a conversation I couldn’t understand a robot was turning you against us.” said Rarity.
“Walter noticed you screaming when you looked at him. I was trying to convince him you are actually a kind loving pony.”
“I can see how that would not paint me in the best light. Not to worry, I can convey an apology easily enough. Now where did I put those curtains?” said Rarity.
“You brought curtains?”
“Fluttershy told me this place was rather drab. Though I never would have believed to what extent had I not seen it for myself.”
“Honestly I’m surprised you’re not more shocked by the acidic air and increased gravity.” puzzled Twilight just now remembering these hadn’t always been normal features of her life.
“Fluttershy already mentioned those. They are both royal pains, but after waiting to see you for over a year I’m not going to complain about details like that.”
“I’m surprised Fluttershy has been so chatty about the Old Earth. I thought she wanted to forget this place existed.”
“She does, but she has had some nasty dreams about it. I can always tell when she’s been shaken by a nightmare, so I’d question her, and we’d talk about it, and she’d feel better.”
“And who is going to talk Fluttershy through her nightmares with you gone?”
“Well there is always Applejack...” stated Rarity who paused for a moment. She continued, “...but Fluttershy tends to just bottle up the fear if no one brings it up and Applejack isn’t good at picking up on subtle cues so she probably wouldn’t even think to ask Fluttershy if she had a dream. That is troubling but your need is greater.”
“No it isn’t. Rainbow Dash is gone and so am I. No matter how much you don’t want to admit it, you must know on some level no matter how long you stay here, I’m not coming back. Do you really think our friends are better off with another friend missing?”
“You really are determined to face this alone.”
“It is my mistake. I invented the technology to go between world’s. It’s why I was given the honor to go through it, and why my hubris made me think it was safe.”
“You were a different person back then.”
“It doesn’t matter. Whenever we faced something before, if the worst happened it would be somepony else’s fault. Chrysalis, or Nightmare Moon, or Discord. For once it would be mine and I can’t deal with that.”
“Then there really is no point in me staying. Take me home.”
“It’s not like I can just use my magic to send you home.”
“You did that to get here.”
“For some reason that aspect of my magic doesn’t seem to work here. Regardless my shift will end in thirty minutes so if we are going to get you home, we better do it quickly.”
Rarity hoofed around into her bag and pulled out curtains.
“Tell walter I’m sorry for everything, and give him these for me. It’ll really liven up the place and generally keep you two in better spirits.”
I’ll do that as soon as we get back, said Twilight who was adjusting the teleporter.
A short while later they vanished in a ray of light.
~~~
“Interesting, so you really are a pony,” said the lanky figure of Dr. Delta. He was adorned with his usual white lab coat, but his own skin may have been even paler. His glasses had slipped a smidge down his nose to their usual equilibrium point.
Normally Twilight would have been glad to see Dr. Delta. He was the only person other than Walter Twilight had felt relieved to be around, and in some ways she was less tense around him than Walter. He wasn’t as gruff and cared about manners. Under the circumstances though he was the last person she wanted to see. If someone else had caught her maybe she would have been able to convince Dr. Delta it was some kind of misunderstanding. Yet despite herself, Twilight couldn’t help but feel somewhat comforted by his presence.
Twilight had to ask even though she knew that pointing out that he shouldn’t be there wouldn’t somehow make him not be there. “Dr. Delta, what are you doing here?”
“I’m surprised you hadn’t already figured it out. Honestly, you’ve been a bit obvious. You’ve made it very difficult to cover for you. Knowing you are prone to being reckless, I tend to come in early.”
Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. Could he really have suggested that he’d help her? What did he mean about being obvious though? Many questions raced through Twilight’s mind, but they all hinged on being sure she wasn’t imagining what he just said. “Are you saying you’ve been helping to cover up my secret?”
“I’m sure you already have deduced you are under surveillance. Yet when you first teleported here, a pony came with you, and later you turned into a pony too. Someone had to cover that up. There are other examples, but that’s when I first discovered you needed my help.”
As much as Twilight wanted to believe she had an ally, these humans had every reason to hate ponies. Though Twilight liked to think she would never have been so careless in picking somewhere to send the humans, how would they know that? Further helping her was risking his job and probably his life. Surely this had to be some kind of a trap, but Twilight had to give him a chance to explain. “Why would you do it?”
“I am a scientist. Killing extra-dimensional ponies does not interest me, but it seems impossible to get funding elsewhere. All four of the other alleged five smartest people in the world went here, so I assumed it was where the most interesting science would be happening. I never wanted to be Dr. Delta. I just want to be Dr. Coflare.”
Twilight had been so distracted by the possibility of having someone else she could trust, she had nearly forgotten about Rarity. Though he said it convincingly his excuse seemed kinda shaky. Regardless, if setting up this trap really was so important, maybe he would let her send Rarity home. “So you won’t stop me from sending back my friend?”
“Of course. I’ve already logged in, so you’ll need me to do it.”
“I can not allow that” said a female voice, “Given the unusual circumstances, and the fact that I have inadvertently suggested such an illusion spell twice now, it is hard to say who is the pony and who is the traitor. I was going to ignore such a possibility since twice it has been counter-productive, but this unusual behavior means I can not.”
“It would seem either the white horse is Dr. Delta, the one who appears as Dr. Beta is an illusion, and Dr. Delta is a pony, or everyone is as they appear to be. If the former there is no traitor, and the winner will be given full rights to issue whatever command they wish. If the latter then there is a traitor and two ponies to capture.”
“You do realize you have us both rooting for the same outcome right? Why should I even try to win?” inquired Dr. Coflare.
“Because this time the stakes will be different. The loser will be executed on the spot. Sorry, did I forget to mention that?” the female voice said coldly.
“What sort of strange puzzle do you have for us today?” asked Dr. Coflare.
They way Dr. Coflare just glossed over their potential demise did nothing to calm Twilight. The stakes had always been high, but with two wins under her belt, she had thought doing another logic puzzle might even be enjoyable. Now losing was strictly not an option. Why had Rarity followed her?
No, she couldn’t blame her friends who didn’t live in this world, for being naive. It was her fault for never bothering to figure out how to write a program with a smaller teleportation radius. She had thought that making sure nopony was nearby when running the program would be enough, but she shouldn’t have left anything to chance.
But then her stomach dropped out completely as Twilight realized even if she won, she would be responsible for the death of someone who had only meant to help her. Dr. Delta or Dr Coflare or whatever his name was, had every reason to hate her, but instead he risked everything to help, and Twilight had killed her.
Twilight took a deep breath, and let out this thought with it. She had to brush this thought aside for now, because she needed a clear head. She had to win for Rarity.
As Twilight began to wonder why everyone else had put helmets on she began to finally process what the computer’s voice had said while she had been clearing her mind.
“A virtual labyrinth. The first one to the center wins. It will occasionally have riddles to guide you, but where it doesn’t it will test your ability to make logical coherent maps. Pick up a helmet on the table.”
Sure enough there were helmets untidily strewn about on a nearby table. They did not have any sort of visor or eyepiece though as Twilight had expected. However when she put it on her head a grassy labrinth emerged around her. The helmet caused a tickling sensation on her head, and she postulated this meant it was somehow stimulating her brain directly, to plant the illusion of a maze in her mind. Regardless, the grass and spring breeze felt real enough to her.
“I dont’ suppose asking for a helmet that is gentler on the mane, would help convince this computer I’m an illusion,” whispered Rarity.
“I don’t think it’d matter. This computer is really determined to figure out who is a pony and who is a human its own way,” said Twilight.
Seeing a path to the left, right, and center, Rarity asked, “Which way do we go?”
“I don’t see a clue, so we’ll have to make one at random and make a map, of where we’ve been already. There don’t seem to be any materials to make a map with though. That’s probably part of the test too,” muttered Twilight.
Rarity placed her hoof on the path leading right, then looked at it. She then wiped her hoof clean and did the same thing for the other two paths. “This one,” she said pointing to the path on the right.
“How do you know which way to go?” asked Twilight.
“I don’t. But if we don’t know which way to go, we may as well go whichever way is least likely to mess up that pristine lab coat of yours.” said Rarity, desperately trying to wipe the last smudges off her hoof. Her harmony necklace appeared around her neck and her cutie mark started glowing after she said this.
Twilight was tempted to argue but quickly remembered this was a race, and there was no way to determine which way was the right way. Further Rarity disgust at using her white coat to determine which way was the least dirty, reminded her that trivial though it seemed to Twilight, Rarity really was helping the only way she knew how, given that they were both at the mercy of a crazed machine.
After several twists and turns they found themselves in an opening with five passageways, but there was a stone with words engraved on it.
It read, “Two of our ways lead back to start. The other brothers form a circle. The remainder leads on. Neither twin is next to its brother. Neither side of the true way is the same.”
“I was never very good at these puzzles,” said Rarity.
“They were never exactly my specialty either.” said Twilight.
Seeing Rarity’s concerned frown Twilight continued hoping to sound reassuring, “But I’ve come a long way since magic kindergarten. I’m sure I can figure this one out.”
Twilight read it twice. Was that really all it had to say? That ruled out some options but it hardly seemed to give a conclusive answer. Twilight thought about it for a while and concluded that all she knew for sure about the right way is that it was neither of the edges, as that was the only way for it to have a passage on both sides.
But then Twilight remembered it never technically said the right way had a passage on both sides, but merely that both sides weren’t the same. A wall wasn’t the same as a passage. With all these clues even though it was possible to eliminate certain passage configurations, she knew nothing about which way to go. That was it! The logical test in this case wasn’t the riddle, but how long it would take one to realize it was a useless clue.
“This clue is meaningless. We’ll just have to pick a way again,” said Twilight.
Though Twilight had been so busy with the riddle she hadn’t noticed Rarity leave her side, apparently she already been examining how clean the paths were. Rarity pointed to the one on the left that wasn’t on the far left, while wiping dirt off her hoof and saying, “That way is least dirty.”
What an illogical way of determining where to go, yet when had anypony behaved logically with a glowing flank? Regardless Rarity had been right last time and something about her glowing made Twilight wonder if it wouldn’t work again.
They trotted down its twists and turns and again followed Rarity for a couple more arbitrary choice points before coming to another open area with another puzzle. Twilight had barely skimmed it this time, but read enough to know it wasn’t enough information to determine conclusively which way to go.
“Of course. These hints only give the illusion of being helpful, but none of them narrow down the possibilities. The logic is in the navigating and recognizing this pattern.”
With this the white mare continued to guide them through several more twists and turns, and without ever having to backtrack they eventually found the center and the end.
“Congratulations Dr. Delta. I’m glad to see you aren’t a traitor.” rang the female voice from all around them as the labyrinth disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. As they took off their helmets Twilight was surprised to see, that unlike when she had tried to send Fluttershy back, she hadn’t moved an inch from where she was when the illusion started.
“First to deal with the loser,” said the voice.
Twilight wanted to put her hooves to her eyes, but they wouldn’t move. Not that it mattered. The sound of the execution would still be tattooed on her brain, as she wouldn’t be able to cover both her eyes and ears. Then it occurred to her that she had no idea how the computer would carry out its threat, as she had worked with it several times before, but never seen any weapons.
This thought did not provide comfort for long though as immediately several tiny laser guns that seemed to have formed from nowhere emerged from the walls and aimed themselves at Dr. Coflare. He was trembling visibly but said nothing. Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on it, but something seemed unnatural about his quivering. Perhaps people just shake differently when they are about to die. Twilight couldn’t bare the silence. If only he’d beg for his life, at least there wouldn’t be the unbearable nothingness leading up to his inevitable screams.
But just as quickly as they had pointing at him, they all disappeared again.
“You didn’t really think I was going to kill a pony did you? No indeed I shall just capture it to be studied at my masters’ leisure. The death threat was just to insure that everyone would give their all. Besides wasn’t it more fun?”
Twilight couldn’t think of when she had less fun, and given her experiences over the past year that was an achievement. The candid way in which it joked about death, made Twilight want to break it along with the technology to warp to Equestria, but she didn’t know enough about it to break it in an inconspicuous way.
“So Dr. Delta who appears as a white mare, what would you have me do?”
For a moment Rarity just stared at Twilight, wondering if she should have them both sent back, but Twilight stared back intently as if to say, “You know what you must do.”
Rarity frowned slightly still disappointed, but this was no place for a mare, and her presence wasn’t helping Twilight.
“Send me to Equestria,” demanded Rarity. The words had barely escaped her mouth when she disappeared.
~~~
“Dr. Beta, can we talk,” said Dr. Coflare.
Twilight had been wanting to talk to him ever since he helped her cover up the fact that Rarity had been present in the facility a week ago. Apparently he had been helping her all along, but she had only recently discovered how easily she would have been discovered without his help. Twilight had been nervous about approaching him though, as if somehow he had forgotten who she really was and talking to him might make him suspicious.
Now that he was approaching her though, she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was he suffering from a guilty conscious from keeping her secret? Regardless Twilight had to know, so she replied, “sure...”
She proceeded to look around the cafeteria and realized how crowded it was.
“Perhaps we should spend our lunch at Walter’s place. He’s graciously been letting me stay with him ever since that accident with my home.”
Dr. Coflare winked at Twilight and said, “I doubt, Walter’s place is very cozy. How about we go to my place instead.”
Twilight was relieved he wanted privacy. Though she hadn’t wanted to say anything she was also glad he didn’t accept her offer to go to Walter’s place. It was the only place Twilight could think of for privacy off the top of her head, but she had the distinct feeling Walter didn’t care for any of the five alleged smartest scientists. His grudge seemed primarily against Dr. Beta, but she doubted that he’d be thrilled to have Dr. Delta over.
“Okay.” she said.
Twilight quickly scarfed down the remaining potatoes and jello on her tray and followed Dr. Coflare. They went down a couple of hallways after putting up their trays, calibrated a teleported, and appeared in his living room.
“This is a rather nice place you have here,” said Twilight surveying the black leather couch, the black leather loveseat, and the two black leather recliners.
“Bet you can’t guess the theme,” said Dr. Coflare before plopping down on the couch.
At this Twilight smirked before asking, “So you are in charge of surveillance?”
“You make it sound like a whole department. Really it is just Twilight and you they have wanted surveillance on,” said Dr. Coflare.
At this Twilight raised and eyebrow and opened her mouth, but Dr. Coflare continued, “Don’t worry, they haven’t made the connection. Of course they wanted to know everything a pony in their midst did. As for you, well you have to admit suddenly showing up after everyone thought you were dead is suspicious. Admittedly, I think it was a wiser decision than trying to craft a new identity for yourself, as even the best minds, tend to do this very poorly.”
“I know you told me earlier, but I’m still not sure why you helped me.”
“That’s because I didn’t tell you the whole story. Let’s just say their are some things that I can’t say in that facility no matter who doesn’t seem to be around. You see, I’m a pony.” said Dr. Coflare softly.
“What?!” sputtered Twilight.
“I don’t know how I got here, but my first memories are of being a unicorn. I was skilled with magic, and lived in the wild. Though my physical abilities were sharp as they had to be, I could feel my mind dulling, without interesting questions to explore. Becoming a part of human society seemed like the only way to satisfy this unbridled curiosity, but I knew they would never accept me as I was. After many years of attempting unusual feats with my magic, I devised a spell that would make me human.”
“You must be have been a very powerful and brilliant unicorn to be able to do that.” said Twilight awestruck.
Dr. Coflare nodded and said, “In hindsight you are probably right, but neither knew nor cared at the time. I was envious of humans science, but having no basic knowledge it took much research before I was able to attend college. From there the rest is history.”
“Do you remember your unicorn name?” asked Twilight wanting someway to address Dr. Coflare as the pony he really was.
At this Dr. Coflare smirked and remarked, “Wildblaze. Wildblaze Coflare. It was a suitable name for my fiery mane, fireball cutie mark, and destructive abilities. My feats of magic were great, but they probably weren’t exactly natural.”
This last statement intrigued Twilight but there was a more pertinent question she had been meaning to ask. “Why did you take a job with Logos?”
“At first I didn’t have a good understanding of what they were about, but mostly it was for when this day came. With or without me, one of their endeavors was bound to succeed eventually. However being a trusted part of the organization, I would be in a much better position to be able to do something. The plan was always fuzzy as to what exactly I would do, but I figured that much would become apparent when the time came, and indeed it did.”
“Your story is very unusual. You don’t remember anything about how you got here?” inquired Twilight.
At this Wildblaze nodded and said, “I don’t remember but I do have a theory. Some of my dealings at Logos have lead me to believe, some strange technology they devised succeeded in getting me here, before failing several more times and ultimately breaking. Apparently it was a very sophisticated piece of machinery, and it had failed thousands of times, so they never bothered with it again.”
“But why don’t you remember your family?”
At this Wildblaze sighed and continued. “They experimented on me for years, before I somehow escaped. By exploring an abandoned part of the lab, I’ve seen many old devices that could easily be mistaken for instruments of torture, that were clearly made to fit the body of a small pony. I’ve disassembled and reassembled a few to figure out what they do. One of them that I’ve puzzled over seems to be for extracting magic out of a victim's brain. Another was undoubtedly to see how well magic could be performed under different levels of stress and pain.”
“I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have doubted you!” said Twilight.
“It’s okay. I’ve needed to tell someone about that anyway. The one thing I don’t understand is how humans ended up here in the first place.”
Twilight didn’t want him to have to know what their kind had done, but she needed to tell somepony how she felt.
“That was our doing. I don’t know if we stole your home from you, or if it was both of our homes and these human’s ancestor’s were trying to kill us. But I do know that we didn’t bother to find a more hospitable place to send you. I know that innocent people suffer for our carelessness.”
Wildblaze shook his head slowly. “I had hoped that was a lie, but part of me knew it wasn’t. Ponies and people really aren’t so different after all, but I suppose you wouldn’t know that, being exposed to the worst of humanity. A cross section of the most scientific and the most vengeful are attracted to that place.”
“Walter and you, have always been kind to me. Yet even still I did sometimes think that humans were more nefarious than ponies. It makes the idea of what we did more bearable. Sometimes I even wonder if the more logical bent of humans isn’t the problem. I thought that was the corrupt part of me. All that remains of the infamous Dr. Beta.”
“There are those who can’t accept what they don’t understand, but others are merely curious. Perhaps there is a correlation between intelligence and arrogance, but the desire to know isn’t evil, nor were you.”
“How can you say that?! Did I not work on the gate to Equestria?! Did I not go over to destroy ponies?!” exclaimed Twilight.
“I knew you, and you were never vengeful. You wanted earth back for the good of humanity, and you thought ponies were evil. How were you to know any different?I wanted to tell you back then who I really was, so you could know better. But I couldn’t. We were good friends, and I wasn’t strong enough to tell you the truth. I always thought there would be more time, but in the end I was too late. This is all my fault.”
“It’s better this way. Now you have a friend to help defend our kind. Something always felt wrong about defending it alone. So wrong, that I actually considered bringing my friends here. But now I understand, it is because we are supposed to defend it together,” said Twilight softly with her hoof on his shoulder.
“Our lunch break ends soon, but I’m glad we had this talk,” said Wildblaze.
“Yeah me too,” said Twilight.
~~~
Twilight again sat on Wildblaze’s couch, wearing a frown.
“You don’t have to wear that disguise here. I have to make some modifications to this part of the video feed anyway, so they don’t know what we were actually talking about.” said Wildblaze.
“Thanks, but I don’t think I can handle it right now.” muttered Twilight to the carpet.
Wildblaze looked at Twilight for a moment and then proclaimed, “You sure are an open book. I take it you are missing home?”
“It has been months since I’ve seen my friends. Lately, I’ve been regretting sending Rarity away even though she is safer where she is. Being able to talk to you is the only thing that makes it bearable.”
“It’s hard to get over good friends we once had, but despite the strength of the friendship, sometimes its just not meant to be.”
“You really think our friendship is over?” said Twilight looking up from the ground.
“It’s not a matter of opinion. It’s sad but it’s a fact. They taught you much about friendship, and you probably taught them a few things too, but that time is over now.”
“Do you really think they’ll be alright without me?”
“Every friendship faces difficulty. You can’t expect your leaving to not have created some, but they’ll bounce back.”
“I guess you're right. That does make me feel a little better.” said Twilight who started giving a faint smile.
“There is a way you could feel alot better.”
“What do you mean?”
“Despite having lived here for so long, you still don’t have a place to call home, nor do you feel as though you truly belong.This is because of your repressed memories and form as a pony. There may be a way to turn you back into Dr. Beta.”
“I have a job to do here. I can’t just do what’s easy for me, if it puts my friends at risk,” nodded Twilight.
“You’ll still remember some things from your life as a pony, and I will tell you right away about ponies and everything that happened to you. With this knowledge you’ll surely keep up your post. You’ve always been and will always be you. Nopony can change that.”
“What about Walter?”
Wildblaze sighed. “Sometimes good people don’t always see eye to eye. That doesn’t mean you weren’t a good person. Living together wouldn’t be recommended, but you have your own home to return to, you just don’t remember it.”
“Can’t you just tell me where it is?”
“It won’t feel like home to you just by moving in. Besides there is something I’ve been meaning to tell you, but have had difficulty bringing up.”
“Something more from your past?” inquired Twilight.
“No, something from yours. You see, you weren’t single when you left.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have a family Twilight. Everyone at Logos has been afraid to mention them, because they assumed that that accident that happened to your home included them, and that you’re in denial. They think you’ve been acting differently because you lost your mind.”
“I have a family?” said Twilight her mouth barely moving.
“I know its a lot to take in, but they need you. Maybe part of the reason you miss your friends so much is you somewhere deep inside, you miss your family too.”
“Is going back even possible?” muttered Twilight her eyes unfocused and unblinking.
“If you're asking whether or not they will accept you, then yes. It will take some time, but they will come around. As for becoming human again, before you started there was a big push to be able to create something that could undo magic. It was a daunting task, but we had had enough contact to create something that might be able to undo the effects of certain spells.”
“Come to think of it, the computer in the lab is able to disable my magic,” interjected Twilight.
“In which case the technology probably works. Undoing is harder and takes much longer than disabling but the fundamental idea is the same.”
“Then let’s try it.”
“I think you will be pleased with the results,” said Wildblaze.
~~~
“I’ve never been done this corridor before,” said Twilight.
“We were never able to test our completed technology, as it was all very pony specific, so the projects down here have been put on hold”
They continued down the unfamiliar hall with the usual white walls and lack of decoration, until they entered a large room, with large pieces of unfamiliar machinery strewn about. Aside from the obviously different projects that had been going on, the room looked largely similar to the one Twilight had been used to working in. However before Twilight could take the whole place in they soon found the device they were looking for and stopped.
“The process will take a couple hours but it shouldn’t hurt. Merely lay down and crawl in, they flip over so you’re on your back.”
Twilight examined the machine she was supposed to be getting into and noticed it looked far more pristine and even new then the devices they had passed on there way in. She couldn’t so much as find a single speck of dust on it.
“I thought this project was abandoned.”
“It was.”
“Then why does it look so clean and new?”
At this a slight red tint overtook Dr. Delta’s face and he sputtered,”Well you see uh... I well... cleaned it and replaced a couple of parts to ensure it was safe for you to use... you know uh.... in case you decided you wanted to do this.”
“Well that was very thoughtful,” said Twilight before crawling into the metal tube as instructed.
“Whenever you're ready I’ll hit the button.” said Wildblaze.
“Ready.”
With that the lights in the room dulled, as the light inside the small metal chamber became extraordinarily bright. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was supposed to shut her eyes, but she already had instinctively, and there was no way she was going to open them anytime soon. Twilight felt a slight prickling sensation throughout her body, as if she were full of static electricity. The sensation proceeded to become increasingly intense, until it faded into warmth. Her skin felt as if it were glowing, then melting away to reveal a new layer, yet the skin felt more like a coat, keeping her real skin from breathing, then a part of her.
After many more foreign sensations and a couple hours later her new skin was able to breathe, and her mind was racing. She couldn’t focus anymore. Then everything went black.
“Welcome Dr. Beta.” said Dr. Delta.
A smirking stout man with white hair and sagging cheeks, crawled out of the machine smirking. “I particularly liked the bit about me having a family. As if any woman could keep up with me! Where did you come up with the name Wildblaze anyway?”
“Pony names always have a theme. I couldn’t think of a new last name so I just went with the only thing I could think of for Coflare.” said Dr. Delta.
“I don’t know how you didn’t gag saying all that stuff,” said Dr. Beta.
“I never ate much before those conversations for that reason, but you bought it.”
“Don’t compare that fool, to me.”
“Whatever Twilight Sparkle.” teased Dr. Delta, before they both started laughing uncontrollably.
~~~
There was an unmistakable knocking sound at his door, but who would dare disturb him at such an early hour. Though he was ready to arrange for whoever it was to be impaled, he was curios who had such gall. He got up and turned the knob to his bedroom revealing Dr. Beta.
At this his anger vanished. It had taken long enough, but the robot’s plan had worked far better than he could have hoped.
“Excellent, you are back. Are your memories intact?” asked Dr. AlphaOmega.
“Completely, my lord. The unicorn must have just had a weak mind to not remember everything,” said Dr. Beta.
“Do you know the power you possess?”
“Dr. Delta has informed me.”
“Then today we plan, and tomorrow we take back Earth.” said Dr. AlphaOmega.